[[image:jd_120708_spore01.jpg::right:0]]According to some dudes who are all into BitTorrent, Spore was the single most pirated game of the year. You know Spore, that game with all those DRM thingies that people didn’t like and which were meant to discourage, um, piracy. Well.
Some will probably point to this as evidence that oppressive DRM only encourages piracy, but I think it’s just a indicator of the game’s success. I can’t find overall sales results for PC games this year, but I can’t imagine they’re much different than the list of the top ten most pirated games.
It does however, go to show just how little publishers can really do when it comes to preventing people from stealing their games. It’s a sad fact for PC publishers in particular, but that’s how things are. Console publishers are experimenting with selling games that require peripherals that they themselves are selling, and everyone’s selling special editions to cajole people into buying physical copies. PC publishers have something of a trump card in MMOs and other games that require a subscription service, but with World of Warcraft ruling the nest and the perception that PC games consist of an ever-shrinking stable of genres, it’s not exactly a panacea. Hopefully the (frankly unscientific and biased) results of this study will at least serve as a warning for publishers not to retreat further into their DRM bunker.
I hate DRM. HATE. But that doesn’t make it okay to pirate a game. You’re not “teaching EA a lesson.” Simply don’t buy DRM-ridden crapware. Pirating just proves them right.
(not aimed Johnny, btw, but at the whiny ‘tards who feel entitled to steal)
It was heartbreaking to hear, in one of 1up’s podcasts (was it LAN Party?) that a ridiculously high number of World of Goo players, like 80% or thereabouts, pirated the PC version.
What the hell, people.
You should give credit to ZedPower for creating the Ass Yeti pictured in this post.
@Zef
It was repeated in basically all of their podcasts and it’s definitely a staggering number. But apparently it was reached by comparing the number of unique IPs contacting the leaderboard vs sales. Which sounds fine, except the demo contacts the leaderboard too. So I hope they adjusted for that somehow — otherwise, since I only played the demo and decided I didn’t like it enough to keep playing, I’m a pirate?